Stephen King fans everywhere will rejoice at knowing that the adaptation of King’s The Stand is moving forward with a new screenwriter. According to Vulture, Warner Bros. has hired on screenwriter, David Kajganich for the project.
Kajganich has worked on several film is past such as The Invasion, Blood Creek and an unproduced adaptation of King’s IT.
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf. The novel was originally published in 1978 and was later re-released in 1990 as The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition; King restored some text originally cut for brevity, added and revised sections, changed the setting of the story from 1980 (which in turn was changed to 1985 for the original paperback release in 1980) to 1990, and updated a few pop culture references accordingly. The Stand was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1979, and was adapted into both a television miniseries for ABC and a graphic novel published by Marvel Comics.
A movie adaptation of The Stand was in development hell for 10 years. During the ’80s Stephen King had planned a theatrical film, with George A. Romero directing and himself writing, because he didn’t trust anyone else to do the adaptation. However due to the length of the novel, adapting it proved to be a much harder task.
When King tried to take it to television, many of the studios commented that audiences would not “want to see the end of the world, particularly in prime time.” Eventually King allowed screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg, who was a fan of The Stand, to write his own adaptation on the novel. Pallenberg’s script would clock the film in at close to three hours while still staying true to the novel. Although this adaptation was liked by everyone involved, Warner Bros. decided to back out last minute and it wasn’t made.
ABC eventually offered Stephen King the chance to make The Stand into a 8-hour miniseries for television. King wrote a new screenplay (toned down for television). The miniseries was broadcast in 1994, directed by Mick Garris and starring such actors as Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Miguel Ferrer, Laura San Giacomo, Ossie Davis, Shawnee Smith and Ed Harris.
As of now there isn’t any word on who will star in the new project, or when the projected release date will be.